Blogging To Your MAILBOX (instead of your INBOX)

Hey loves! Whoa - long time huh? Well I really haven't been away-away - I've just been away from daily blogging while the party has been going on over at Instagram and of course my Etsy shop! I really do miss blogging everyday, but I just don't have the time. I even thought I would be able to post 2 times a week, but the shop is keeping me so busy that I find myself working 12+ hours a day leaving no time for blogging. 

So I've come up with a great solution! Instead of me blogging everyday, I am gathering all of my favorite finds, quotes, decorating and fashion tips, recipes, DIY ideas, real talk, hand-paintings and more, and delivering them directly to your MAILBOX (instead of your INBOX) once a month!

If you've been following this blog over the years, you know I am a lover of paper and snail mail so I figured this option is the best of both worlds: I still get to "blog", just in a different format. This is my 3rd month creating the envelopes and the feedback so far has been amazing. Several readers have asked for a monthly subscription so this month I have provided that option in the event you want to purchase your envelope months in advance. 

Customer Feedback:

- "In love! Thank you Jessica! This April kit is amazing!!!"

- "I kind of forgot that I ordered the envelope, so when I received it, it was a total surprise and made my day"

- "Just received my AMAZING inspirational pack and I LOVE IT! This made my day and I can't thank you enough"

- "I love how much thought and preparation you put into each little note, and I love the personal touches you added as well,,, how in the world did you come up with these cute ideas! I love my gift, totally looking forward to next month's package!"

- "Loved opening my April inspiration - Thanks Jessica"

- "I purchased a pack to send to my sister, and she absolutely loved it. She said it was so pretty she didn't even want to open it"

- "Wow, your creativity blows my mind"

- "You have such a personal way of putting these together. I received my envelope yesterday and enjoyed taking time to read it as I was drinking my morning coffee"

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Previous Envelope Content:

*THE ADDRESSES IN THE ABOVE PICTURES ARE FALSE/MADE UP. PLEASE FEEL SECURE THAT I WOULD NEVER POST OR SHARE YOUR PERSONAL ADDRESS ONLINE OR ANYWHERE*

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So if you would like to join in on the fun - click HERE (by June 5th) to order this month's envelope FULL of amazing finds. I think you're going to love it (at least I'm hoping so)!!!

xoxo

April Inspiration Snail Mail Subscription - CLOSED

UPDATE: the April Inspiration Snail Mail subscription is now closed. THANK YOU to all who signed up. If you missed out this time, don't worry - the sign up for May will be posted in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
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Hey Peeps! It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and I'm just as busy as ever. I'm about halfway through the B-School curriculum (and it's kicking my butt), keeping up with all of the shop orders, creating my official website myself (pray for me), and working on my dream launch (more details about that later as I have a ways to go), and finally rolling out a new and exciting project: Monthly Inspiration Snail Mail Subscriptions!!!

Do you love receiving snail mail like I do? To me, few things are more fun than coming home to an unexpected bright pop of color amongst a sea of mundane daily bills and supermarket advertising. There's something so pure and personal about the handmade, slow social exchange that I just love.

If you feel the same, then sign up for the April Snail Mail Subscription for yourself or a friend, and receive a beautiful hand-painted envelope full of little surprises and a bunch of printed quotes, hand-drawings, tips, and DIY ideas!

If you are ordering for a friend, I will need:

1) Name and address of recipient

2) Personal message to be written inside the envelope (optional)

***NOTE: EACH ENVELOPE PAINTING IS ORIGINAL AND NOT EXACT TO WHAT IS SHOWN IN THE PICTURE BELOW. THE ENVELOPE DESIGN WILL BE DIFFERENT EACH MONTH***

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To subscribe to this month's mailing, simply click HERE to head over to my Etsy shop and add the April Mail Subscription to your cart.

• The contents of the package is typically over a $25 value, but I am offering a $10 introductory price per envelope plus shipping. 
• This month's subscription EXPIRES on Wednesday, April 15 at 11:59PM. 
• All envelopes will be shipped during the week of April 27. 

I'm so excited about these because when I send out inspiration into the world - I get even more inspired to create amazing things for you. I may be a little crazy for adding another project to my plate, and like I've said before its times like these I wish I had an army helping, but it's just me making everything in my shop by hand for you - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Don't miss out!!! Click HERE to purchase by Wednesday, April 15th!

xoxo,

Jessica

Hola + Friday Finds

Hey loves! As you can tell I've been pulled from the blog and while I definitely miss being on here - amazing things are happening behind the scenes. I'm neck-high in B-School, working on a few new business ventures, fulfilling orders, trying to keep up with social media and marketing, and slowy figuring out how to develop a website. I so wish I had the money to have the lovely ladies over at Go Live HQ develop my site for me, because I know exactly what I want, and they would be able to create it in 2 DAYS!!! Man would that be genius - but until that angel investor comes along, I gotta figure this ish out. 

Yesterday I launched sample sizes (2oz.) of my body scrubs. This is the perfect size to try all of my scents and a great size to give away as a gift. For those that have ordered the full size (8oz.) scrub, the picture above shows how I have recycled my jar after I used all of my scrub. Cute right? Simply soak your jar in hot water and the label should side right off. If not, just use a little elbow grease and it will come off in no time!

1. There's only a few of you out there that knows how much I neeeeed this mug.  A question was answered last night when I saw this pretty lady.

2. Shrimp tacos + boom boom sauce. You're welcome. That sauce is everything!!!

3. This reclaimed wood toilet paper holder - love it! Great for a loft apartment or a man's bathroom!

4. This bag makes me want to do a cartwheel and finish with the splits. Where oh where do I find it?

5. The ultimate treehouse - don't you agree? While I wouldn't consider myself an outdoorsy person - you wouldn't be able to pull me out of here!

6. Nashville Hot Fried Chicken - now admit it, you licked the screen didn't you? lol!!!

7. The Oprah and Deepak Meditation Challenge is currently going on and wow is it powerful and enlightening. It's FREE and you still have time to catch up. I promise if you simply listen to one meditation - you'll be hooked! What an amazing way to start your day!

Enjoy your weekend loves!!

Weekend Plans + Friday Finds

Happy Weekend Peeps!! This is a quick snapshot of my 'office under the stairs' that I mentioned in my last post and a few people asked to see more of it. I spend most of my days here strategizing and cranking out orders for SIX EIGHTY EIGHT - and while yes it's in the cold basement, I love it because I know one day I'm going to have one heck of a story. It's no surprise that I will probably be right here all weekend and I have a lot of things to do -  I'm trying to cram as much busy and administrative work into this next week before B-School starts on March 9th. I also have A LOT more pouches to make because of you and my customers, I sold out of almost all of them!!! So busy busy weekend for me. How about you? What's on your agenda?

1. Caramel brownies with a salted pretzel crust - say whaaa....

2. The scary power of negative words - good read over at Goop.

3. This Brass Himmeli Hanger DIY project looks amazing. I wish I had the time to make it as it would make for the perfect reading light or plant hanger!

4. How cute are these plastic bags? Definitely an idea for the brick and mortar!

5. I don't watch much TV anymore, but late a night once I "close up shop" I've been obsessed with watch documentaries on Netflix (what's everyone saying on Instagram? - my neck, my back, my Netflix and my snacks - hahaha!). My favorites so far are:

- Burt's Bees: all I can say is wow and now I want a Burt's Bees poster in my house

- Desert Runners: if you haven't guessed it, it's about marathon runners that complete 4 marathons across 4 of the world's toughest deserts - crazy and amazing

- The Summit: footage with of the events that transpired on August 1, 2008, which claimed the lives of eleven mountaineers trying to summit the K2 mountain - the world's most dangerous mountain

- Living On One Dollar: journey of four friends as they set out to live on just $1 a day for two months in rural Guatemala who battle hunger, parasites, and extreme financial stress). 

If you're going to be snowed in this weekend, or don't have any plans - I highly suggest you watch any or all of these movies - you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

New SIX EIGHTY EIGHT Necklace Packaging

Over the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and working pretty hard on how I could update the packaging for my necklaces over at the shop. The old packaging was fine - but for those of you that know me pretty well, you know I'm not a fan of the word fine. Fine, to me, means just ok, so-so, whatever, it'll do. When I put my name on something, it has to be more than fine, it has to be amazing. And finally, I'm love with the new packaging and feel it's pretty amazing: 

The packaging consists of a handcrafted (by me) draw-string blush pink fabric pouch that you can store your SIX EIGHTY EIGHT jewelry in. I have hand-stamped 688 on a brass charm and attached it to the front of the pouch. Each pouch will be packaged (as only I love to do) and shipped in a small box vs. a flat envelope. 

As you know, and as it explains in the card above, I have been on a journey of living my life with intention and have decided to choose joy and love over fear, and I want to spread that message. I thought the perfect way to start spreading that message is through each purchase. Sometimes, just one sentence can change your mind and open your soul, so with each purchase I have included a message that I hope will inspire. 

Every necklace purchase will receive a pouch (that's right - YOU get a pouch, and YOU get a pouch) - which means I have a lot more cutting, hole-punching, threading, and metal stamping to do and I LOVE IT!

One other thing that I wanted to add is that I have changed suppliers. I noticed that a few of the pieces were starting to fade and tarnish faster than the normal wear and tear should be. The supplies are more costly, but I would rather pay more than risk the quality of my pieces. With that, you will notice a slight increase in cost to each necklace. Nothing offensive, just necessary to help cover expenses. If by chance you feel any of your SIX EIGHTY EIGHT pieces have faded/tarnished quicker than you expected and would like a replacement, don't hesitate to contact me. 

***Today only I am offering a 20% discount code off of your total SIX EIGHTY EIGHT purchase. Simply click here and use the code: HAPPYHUMPDAY***

Next week NEW items will be added to the shop - so stay tuned for more updates. I'm super excited - lots of fun things going on at SIX EIGHTY EIGHT. The bags under my eyes are proof (and I don't mean hand or shopping bags). 

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(You think you know - but you have no idea - this is the reality of a blogger)

Can anyone tell me why it takes 4 ******* hours to take one picture? I can hear you now "it doesn't take a normal person 4 hours, it takes YOU (Jessica) 4 hours because you're a perfectionist". Well 1. shut up, and 2. you're right, and 3. I'm working on it. Not to justify my craziness, but because I am really proud of the new packaging I just wanted everything to be right.....ok, perfect. I spent so much time yesterday afternoon taking pictures in the natural light - and later in the evening as I was going through all of them, I didn't like any of them. So in a haste (because I just had to have it ready to post this morning) I set up my makeshift photography studio in the basement (say hello to my little office under the stairs - this is where all the magic happens - one day when I make it big, I too will get to say I started my business in the basement) and I laid on the cold floor next to the furnace to get the perfect shot. I said I was working on it - and I am. I recently read that people who are perfectionists are ultimately afraid that the world is going to see them for who they really are and that they won’t measure up. DOH! So true. So painful and so true. As perfectionists, we’re afraid of so many things. Starting new projects, making the wrong life decision, choosing a partner - and each of them share this common denominator: fear of failing. It makes us indecisive and reliant on others to guide. I'm really trying (specifically through meditation) to cultivate the habit of refusing to let fear dictate my every move. It's a process.....not an easy one....but if it will keep me off the cold basement floors late at night (ha!) - I'm going to put forth the effort.

Have an amazing day loves and shop, shop, shop!